Black and grey compass rose tattoo with ornate N, E, S and W points on the inner wrist of a hand.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Compass rose on an inner wrist

Traditional · Forearm · Black and grey · Photo

A detailed compass rose sits on the inner wrist, with an eight-point star at its centre inside a double ring. Ornate letters mark the cardinal points and small curled flourishes extend from the outer edge. The ink is dark grey and black with fine shading on the points, set against a close crop of skin and a dark-nailed hand.

Traditional Forearm Compass Compass rose Nautical Star Wrist

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Mrs Pell kept the brass compass on the windowsill of the back parlour, because the man who had left it on the washstand never came down for it. Three weeks he stayed at Gull Rest, paying in advance and going out before light, and every morning the needle lay quiet in its bowl while the north wall of the house faced the sea.

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The village said the compass was wrong. Tom Hadley swore it pointed at the chapel rather than the pole, and Ada from the chandler's brought her boy to see for himself. Mrs Pell only turned the case so the N faced the door and let them argue over their tea.

On the last night of the season the wind went round to the west and the needle began to tremble. She carried the compass up to the attic and found the window open and the bed made tight with hospital corners. On the sill lay a sheet of paper with the eight points of the rose traced in pencil, each letter set carefully at its mark, and beneath the N he had written only: not yet.

She walked the compass down to the harbour at first light and set it on the bottom step, where the tide came in and went out again. When the water had covered and left the step three times, the needle swung, shivered and held. Mrs Pell went home and put the kettle on, and for the first time that season she laid a place at the table for the man who had gone.